Cox Enterprises CEO: ‘You can’t sit behind a desk’

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After 37 years at Cox Enterprises, John Dyer began running Georgia's largest private company last month.

Starting out auditing the books in 1977, Dyer rose through the ranks to gain increasing financial responsibilities before switching over to the operations side of Cox’s biggest business — cable. Experience with the numbers, as well as how things work in the field, helped propel Dyer, 59, into the CEO job.

With about $16 billion in annual revenue and more than 50,000 employees, Cox operates in three major industries — cable and broadband (Cox Communications), auto (Manheim vehicle auctions and the AutoTrader online marketplace) and media (Cox Media Group, which runs TV and radio stations, and newspapers, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

Dyer, a Georgia native, talks about what he learned at the bargaining table of the mergers and acquisitions that helped Cox grow. He also discusses his view of the recently announced blockbuster combination of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, which will likely have about five times the number of cable customers as Cox does when the deal closes. And he recalls a key mistake early in his career he hopes never to repeat.

Q: What early experience helped shape who you are?

A: I grew up on a farm down in Newnan. You get up early, work hard, go to bed early and then get up and do it again.

My parents insisted that I go to college. But there weren’t a lot of role models.

One summer in my junior year of high school, my dad put me in the hay loft at the top of the barn. It had to be 130 degrees and I was stacking up hay bales.

That was a great lesson. It was hard work — and not work that I wanted to spend my life doing. The notion of going to college and getting a degree was reinforced.

Q: So you went to the University of West Georgia? What happened?

A: I went there with the goal of being an attorney. I had seen enough to know that local attorneys were well respected in small towns.

Two years into college, my guidance counselor told me my grades weren’t good enough to get into law school. Then during the summer and fall, I stayed out of school for two quarters and worked in construction. One of the jobs was with a wheelbarrow and concrete. Like the hay loft (experience), I realized I didn’t want to work construction.

I went back to school and my grades improved dramatically. I had to find something I could use and that took me to accounting.

Q: After graduating, you got a job that involved managing experienced workers. What did you learn?

A: I was in the accounts payable department of a manufacturer. Part of my job was to manage three women who had been manually cutting checks for between 25 and 40 years.

I asked them if there was something I could do to help them with their jobs.

They said, “you go do your job and we’ll do our jobs.”

You learn to respect the fact that people are enormously proficient. They didn’t need managing.

Later on in my career, I learned more about this from a mentor. He was a guy who knew when to encourage and when to demand or expect. That’s real talent.

Q: You joined Cox’s cable operations on the financial side, but after several years you got the chance to broaden your experience by working as an operations executive. Then you left Cox to become a regional manager for Times Mirror’s cable operations. What did you learn?

A: I became a regional manager in New England and learned a ton.

One of the most profoundly impacting things occurred in northwestern Massachusetts during a union election at one of the locations.

I went to see these people. We hadn’t done the right things. We were well behind on employee reviews, so we were well behind on pay raises.

During an employee meeting I asked, “why didn’t you come and tell me” before going to the union?

“Pardon me,” one woman said, “but I didn’t know who the hell you were.”

As much as a cold bucket of water that was, it told me something. You can’t sit behind a desk.

I thought “wow,” what a wonderful lesson. I was so out of touch with what was going on. In leadership, you have to be talking to your people. They have to know who you are.

Q: You were involved in the deal that sold Times Mirror Cable to Cox, as well as many other deals. What did you learn?

A: I've been involved in countless mergers and acquisitions on the buying, selling and swapping side.

Dealmaking is understanding what the other party wants and finding a way to deliver as much of that as you can to them. It’s not a zero-sum game. It’s got to work for us and it’s got to work for the other party.

I learned something important when we spent $8.5 billion in 2004 to buy the portion of Cox Communications we didn’t already own and take the entire company private.

At that time, there was another company we could have invested the same amount of money in and gotten bigger. Or we could have used that money and bought the rest of Cox Communications, a company that we knew extremely well.

(CEO) Jim Kennedy made the decision that he would much rather buy the rest of something he knew very well than to buy all of something that was a fixer-upper and we didn’t know well — no matter how much due diligence we did.

Bonus questions

Q: How has Cox benefited from being a privately held company? Please give an example.

A: There is no business that hasn't been impacted by the Internet. There have been huge changes in classified advertising (a key source of newspaper revenue). Smart people here saw the industry dynamics changing and said, "let's compete with ourselves." That led to the birth of AutoTrader (an online marketplace for car buyers and sellers) in 1997.

If we were a public company, it would have seemed silly to the analysts at that time. We have an enormous luxury of being a private company. We get to do what is right over a long period of time. It doesn’t have to be (geared to) quarterly results. We built AutoTrader patiently and slowly.

Cox is never going to be in position where they’re not in control, at least in a significant way.

Q: But being private can also mean being smaller. For example, Comcast is buying Time Warner Cable in a $45 billion deal that will create a more powerful industry leader. How are you going to respond? In the future, are you going to be a consolidator or one of the consolidated?

A: I think you can be C — none of the above.

We are comfortable in our position in the industry. We have great markets. There are plenty of opportunities in adjacent industries related to what we do today.

As far as that specific merger, there will be one big player but the rest of the industry will be of similar size.

Also, it’s way too early in the regulatory process to know if we will (pick up additional cable markets as a result of the deal).

Q: What’s your best career advice?

A: If you're young, find a mentor, someone who can help identify what's important to you and who understands the firm that you're with.

For mid-career people, be patient. It is at that point when you’re growing and will have lots of opportunities. Jumping at the first opportunity, while it might seem to be the best thing to do, isn’t necessarily the best for you.

For CEOs, I guess I’m still learning what it takes to be successful. You’re responsible for those first two groups and for making sure that leaders in your firm are developing and have opportunities.

Also, keep your ego in check and let people know who you are.